Pages: 1701-1706
Ranjit Singh (Department of Public Administration Punjabi University, Patiala, Punjab)
Ravneet Kaur (Department of Distance Education Punjabi University, Patiala, Punjab)

After 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992, Panchayati Raj Institutions became strong and legal bodies containing clauses for ensuring adequate representation to all the sections of the society. But, age old taboos, negative attitude, prevailing thinking and practices in the society had become strong hindrances in the way of women to be empowered. In present paper, an attempt has been made to analyze the level of participation of rural women folk in governance of local areas in Punjab. Thus, serious efforts need to be made to ensure women participation at all levels of governance particularly in the local bodies so as to make these bodies truly representative of local people.

Pages: 1713-1718
Kahkashsan Hashmi and Basheer Hasan (Department of School of Studies Psychology, Pt. Ravishankar Shukla University Raipur, Raipur, Chhattisgarh)

The objective of the present review was to examine the relationship between psychological capital, and job satisfaction on the basis of empirical studies. Literatures have been scanned from different scientific database, viz., j-Gate, JSTOR, science direct, INFLIBNET, PsychINFO, Springer, Scopus, Elsevier, and Google Scholar. The authors acknowledge 40 studies (full text) covering the period from 2007 to 2018 with certain inclusion criteria. Search terms were psychological capital, hope, optimism self efficacy, resiliency and job satisfaction. After examining different aspects of 40 empirical studies based on different organizations, different levels of employees and different countries this review article was prepared. When all the four dimensions taken together relationship between psychological capital and job satisfaction were reported by almost all the researchers. Same results were obtained when every single dimension of psychological capital was taken to consideration.

Pages: 1729-1736
Shoma Chakrawarty (Department of Psychology, Nanavati Womens College, Mumbai, Maharashtra)
Dhanalakshmi D. (Department of Applied Psychology, Pondicherry University, Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu)

Today, we have an unprecedented number of families dealing with cancer. Research exists to support the fact that cancer is increasing in prevalence across the globe, and that it is more devastating in developing nations. This could, in part, be linked to the socio-demographic context of caregivers in the developing nations. To explore this facet, a cross-sectional survey of 190 primary family caregivers of cancer patients was surveyed using the General Health Questionnaire, Caregiver Quality of Life-Cancer Scale, and the Brief COPE along with a detailed socio-demographic form. Results of inferential tests and post-hoc analysis revealed that caregivers with better education, employment, and economic stability experienced better general health and fewer disruptions in quality of life. In contrast, low-literacy caregivers and financially distressed caregivers used significantly elevated levels of dysfunctional coping strategies. The results clearly indicate the need to extend supportive services, like counselling and psycho-education, to cancer caregivers in hospitals. More research like this could be used to make informed suggestions for macro-level policy measures, like paid caregiving leave or other affordances for caregivers to cope effectively.

Pages: 1744-1748
S. Srividya (Department of Psychology, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu)

Researches on Learning Disability have shown that the stigmatized attitude causes several functional difficulties among adolescents in their social environment. A planned intervention has been cited as a remedy to overcome stigmatized attitude towards disability especially in early adolescents which would help in a developing an optimistic future. The present research work has tried to explore whether a planned integrated holistic intervention would be able to bring about a change in the Attitude towards Disability among school Children. The Attitude towards Disabilit.y was measured using Attitude toward Disability Scale as measured by Power, Green and World Health Organization Quality of Life Group, 2010. The sample which were chosen based on a set of inclusion and exclusion criteria, (n=100, Boys (n=81) and Girls (n=19) aged between aged 13-15 were given forty sessions on Specific Skill Development Intervention for reading, writing and arithmetic and besides interpersonal relations and communications. A pre-post-follow up research design was followed and the results showed that the Integrated Training Program (ITP) was able to bring about differences in the Gains, and Prospects dimension and not in the Discrimination dimension of Attitude towards Disability. Based on the results, several policy implications have been discussed.

Pages: 1754-1756
Sweta Pathak (Department of Psychology, TNB College Tilkamajhi Bhagalpur University, Bhagalpur, Bihar)
Shubhra Sinha (Department of Psychology, VKM Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh)

The present paper reports the development and psychometric properties of the Hindi version of the newly developed self-disclosure scale for adolescents'. Qualitative interview schedule was developed and administered on 50 parents (both father & mother) and 50 adolescents (both boys & girls). Initially 46 items (for 7 domains i.e., like/ dislikes, studies/ career, money, friendship, physical changes, personality & attitude/opinion) were written and on the basis of reliability analysis, some psychometrically poor items were deleted, and only 29 items were included in final scale. After that, through Factor analysis, 18 items were retained and classified in two components, named as Personal self-disclosure and Relational Self-disclosure. The psychometric properties of the Self-disclosure scale were evaluated on a sample of 300 participants. Item analysis of the scale revealed that some items were psychometrically adequate and retained in final scale, whereas psychometrically poor items were removed from final scale. However, the reliability of the scale was found to be highly satisfactory for both components of self-disclosure (alpha = .84 for relational self-disclosure & 0.60 for personal self-disclosure). Overall, the findings revealed that this newly developed self-disclosure scale is a reliable and valid tool to measure the level of adolescents' self-disclosure with their parents.

Pages: 1760-1763
Kavitha Durairaj, R. Murali, and J. Rukumani (College of Nursing, Mother Theresa Post Graduate and Research Institute of Health Sciences, Gorimedu, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu)
M. Muthulakshmi and P. Venkataraman (SRM Medical College Hospital and Research Centre, Tamil Nadu)

The present study was undertaken to the prevalence of Vitamin D deficiency and dietary calcium and sun exposure among pregnant women in a tertiary care hospital. This is a cross-sectional analysis of the serum 25(OH) D levels in pregnant women at SRM Hospital, a tertiary level hospital at booking-in appointment in the antenatal clinic. Pregnant women were enrolled between January to November 2016, at booking-in appointment in the antenatal clinic. The total number of pregnant women recruited during this period was 200. The subjects were included based on criteria such as from first registration, singleton pregnancy, live foetus with Cephalic presentation and parity between one and five. Women with pre-existing DM, glucose clearance test (OGCT) values of fasting blood glucose > 126 mg/dl or 2 h post glucose> 200 mg/dl or those taking metformin for polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) were excluded from the study and women with bad obstetric history (>3 spontaneous abortions), hypertension, renal, or hepatic dysfunction were also excluded. Among the pregnant women, 129 were having normal BMI, 67 were overweight and obese and 4 were underweight. Moderate level of anaemia was found with 114 cases studied. 96% of women were found to be having inadequate Vitamin D intake in their diet.94.5% of maternal women are pre-diabetic which may due to impaired insulin secretion. This protocol entails, identifying at risk women, also screening all pregnant women and treating those found to be vitamin D deficient. We recommend other hospitals do similar studies to look at the incidence in their own district population and therefore consider screening and treating for this major health problem.

Pages: 1768-1770
Harshmeet Kaur (Department of Psychology, Panjab University, Chandigarh)
Shruti Shourie (Department of Psychology, Dayanand Anglovedic College, Chandigarh)

The present study investigated the relationship between optimism and quality of life among adolescents. A sample of 250 adolescents aged 16-18 years were taken in the study. Sample was equally divided among boys and girls. Measures administered were Life Orientation Test-Revised by Scheier and Carver (1994) and World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF scale by The World Health Organization Quality of Life Group (1998). Means, Standard deviations, t test and correlation analyses were carried out. Significant and positive relationship between optimism and well-being was found among adolescents.

Pages: 1774-1779
Priyanka Musalay Thiagaamudhan and Perfidia Pinto (Department of Psychology, St. Francis College, Begumpet, Hyderabad, Telangana)
Vaishali Jain (Delhi Public School, Nacharam, Hyderabad, Telangana)

Body Objectification is when a being is treated merely as a body or a collection of body parts that exist for others' pleasure, that is, treated as sexual objects rather than as a person. Studies showed that men also experience body consciousness to some extent. The phenomenon of Body Consciousness is generally associated with females hence the objectives of this study is to find out the significant relationship of body consciousness in men, specifically in adolescents and emerging adults. Purposive sampling and snowball sampling techniques were used on 200 men where 100 were adolescents and 100 were emerging adults. Body Consciousness was measured using Objectified Body Consciousness Scale. Analysis of data was done using t-test and ANOVA. The results showed that there was a significant difference between Body shame and Appearance control beliefs for emerging adults and adolescents respectively. It also revealed that there is no significance in terms of dieting with respect to age. The implications and shortcomings are discussed.

Pages: 1786-1789
Anupama Sihag (Department of Psychology, G.M.N. College, Ambala Cantt, Haryana)

Agriculture is a stressful occupation in the face of uncertainties like social isolation, machinery breakdown, long working hours, fluctuating market, and unpredictable weather conditions. The precariousness of situation becomes more dreadful when a farmer doesn't perceive stress as a health problem, but a routine farm hassle. The present study focused on identification of daily hassles in farming that might be a source of stress in farmers and the resultant psychological symptoms associated with it. In order to alleviate the debilitating effects of stress, various coping strategies or uplifts were also identified. A sample of 117 farmers in the age range of 22 years and above, from the villages of Haryana was assessed on Hassles and Uplift Scales (Lazarus & Folkman, 1989) and SCL-90-R (Derogatis, 1994). The results of present study indicate that farmers are experiencing considerable level of stress, anxiety, and depression. Complaints of disturbed sleep in elders and moderate suicide ideation in young farmers is also present. Present study suggests potentially valuable interventions and more psychological research in farming sector.

Pages: 1798-1802
Kanika Garg, Neeraj Goel, and Aman Garg (Department of Management Studies, Panipat Institute of Engineering and Technology, Samalkha, Panipat, Haryana)

Electronic banking or e-banking is the term that describes all transitions takes place among companies, organizations and individual and their banking institutions. The purpose of this article is to study the level of Customer Awareness towards E-payment in Haryana. This study is based on the descriptive research design. A total of 86 Customers participated out of 100 Customers in the research conducted using the method whereby participants answered the standardized questionnaire. The study conclude that most of the customers are satisfied with E-Payment in certain factors like wide reach, more convenient and Alternative choice Payment method. However, there are several barriers identified to the adoption of this payment method like most of the customers are dissatisfied with security of E-Payment and network issue.

Pages: 1806-1812
Sarin Dominic and Masroor Jahan (Department of Clinical Psychology, Ranchi Institute of NeuroPsychiatry and Allied Sciences, Ranchi, Jharkhand)

The capacity of an individual to regulate one's emotion, the ways by which it is done and its relationship with pathological symptoms of psychiatric disorders has been a subject of interest to scientists in the past three decades. People who are dependent on psychoactive substances tend to use the substance more, while facing negative life events as they are unable to regulate one's emotions. The inability to cope results in more unpleasant symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression. The present research was carried out to investigate the cognitive coping strategies used by dependent cannabis users while facing negative life events, the level of psychological symptoms of anxiety, stress and depression experienced by them and its relationship with quality of life. A cross-sectional comparative research design with thirty individuals who are seeking psychiatric treatment for cannabis dependence and thirty healthy individuals was carried out. The groups were compared on domains of Cognitive Emotion Regulation questionnaire (CERQ), Depression, Anxiety and Stress scale (DASS) and WHO-Quality of life Scale (WHO-QOL). Individuals who are dependent on cannabis reported a higher level of depression, anxiety and stress and poorer psychological quality of life comparing to healthy individuals. Further Cannabis users were found to readily engage in maladaptive cognitive coping strategies of rumination, catastrophizing and other's blame while facing negative life events than normal controls. Significant positive correlation was found between frequency of use of maladaptive coping strategies and psychological symptoms of anxiety, stress and depression. The elevation of psychological symptoms were associated with poor health and psychological quality of life among dependent Cannabis users.

Pages: 1820-1827
Soumya Dhani (Super Humans Academy, Delhi Chairperson for Empowerment, Women Economic Forum, New Delhi)

The aim was to study the accounts of the teens and young adults coming from dysfunctional families, i.e. families with domestic violence and abuse/ divorce/ parental separation. There are 8 female participants and 5 male participants aged between 17-29 with the total sample size of 13. The tool used was a semi-structured interview comprising of nineteen open-ended questions, spanning several aspects of the traumatic experiences (in retrospect), how it has shaped their lives and the current perspectives on life. The questions addressed: the reasons of conflict; who was at fault for the conflict; the roles played by the mother, father and the child during the incident of conflict; the coping resources used by the child; who wanted the divorce/ separation (if); any attempts made at conflict resolution; the current family structure and dynamics; any changes in locality and finances; their take on life; the child's difficulty/ease in trusting others now; whether they think the world is essentially a fair place or whether they have to fight for their right; if they believe illegitimate male dominance exists; how the experience has helped them grow (if at all); the positives (if) and negatives and the long lasting effects of the traumatic episode; anything good that has resulted which wouldn't have occured otherwise. Themes were obtained from the participants' responses based on differences and similarities. The results have warranted some deep insights into their minds, revealing how children suffer in such dysfunctional families. The experiences of the child have been expressed through their own narratives now as teens/ young adults, along with their thought processes and emotions about the present. The categories like the ability to trust, views on marriage among others provide a rich source of qualitative data for this field of study.

Pages: 1834-1838
Prabha Kumari J. (Department of Psychology, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu)
S. Azmal Basha (Department of Psychology, S.V. Arts College, Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh)

The purpose of this study is to explore and evaluate the scope and efficacy of Neuro Linguistic Programming along with self- hypnosis to address the tissue of bedwetting among adults. Bedwetting or Nocturnal Enuresis (NE) is a global problem suffered by 1 in 100 adults. It is reported to have physiological and psychological reasons causing this debilitating issue. And it was reported that there is no cure for this problem, but it can be managed with medicines, therapies, behaviour modifications and other techniques. Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) is a psychological technology that is known for creating lasting positive changes in the lives of people. To carry out exploring the prospects of using NLP and self-hypnosis to help out the bedwetting adults, a case study was done on a young woman who suffered bedwetting 4-5 times a week. The therapist assessed the emotional state of the subject using Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965) and Depression, Anxiety, Stress scale (DASS 21), and a detailed personal history was taken. Thereafter therapeutic intervention was done using NLP and self-hypnosis. She was assessed again after three months. The scores of the pre-test and post-test showed significant difference in the frequency of dry nights and the positive changes in her emotional states. It was reported that she experienced dry nights from the fourth session of the intervention which indicate the positive effect of NLP and self-hypnosis in eliminating bedwetting among adults and improving their self-esteem.